Drumbeat/overview

3. Goals

In a nutshell: drive awareness, action and new ideas that create a better internet.

If Mozilla Drumbeat succeeds, the idea that the internet is a public resource will be mainstream. More and more people will make choices about technology and online life that sustain -- or even improve -- this resource. With this aim in mind, the Drumbeat community should focus on three goals:

Awareness: Widespread public understanding that the internet is a public resource.

result -> more informed web use, ready to take action and generate new ideas.

New ideas: Critical internet issues focused and clear, practical new solutions on the table.

result -> responding to internet challenges more quickly, generatively.

The best Drumbeat campaigns (projects? themes?) touch on all of these goals, starting with awareness and then inviting people to take action and generate new ideas.

4. Strategy

In a nutshell: website and local events gather people actively involved in creating a better internet. Annual Drumbeat Festival as major convening point.

The Drumbeat strategy mixes online and on the ground activities. Web campaigns. Local gatherings. A yearly event for thoughts leaders. The aim is to get people everywhere thinking and doing around the idea of the internet as a public resource.

Individual Drumbeat campaigns combine these activities with a simple idea or emotional connection to the internet. A passion for social media. A concern about online privacy. A longstanding commitment to a civic cause. These ideas provide a foundation for talking about the bigger picture of the internet as a public resource, and eventually for action and the generation of new ideas.

As the diagram above indicates, Mozilla Drumbeat is built around three core elements plus a modest grants program. The elements are:

Online: simple and helpful email newsletters as a way to make initial contact plus online campaigns for people who want to be more involved.

On the ground: local community events, demos and discussions where people learn about Drumbeat themes and prototype their new ideas.

Yearly event: annual ideaswap / skillshare / festival, showcasing the best ideas and setting an agenda for the coming year.

These activities form a platform of sorts, providing a framework for all Drumbeat campaigns. At an awareness level, they help us to engage large numbers of people. At the action and idea generation levels, they give members of the Drumbeat community a chance to invent solutions, write content and create campaigns. In the process, these activities help build up new community leaders who will make our drumbeats louder and spread it further. full description of approach